Fresh Chorizo Tacos

Mexican choizo is fresh pork or beef sausage and much different from Spanish or Philippine-style chorizo which is a hard, dried sausage. This includes a recipe for making your own chorizo allowing you to control what goes into the sausage and they are much less greasy. You could use beef, turkey, or chicken thigh meat instead of the pork. Make sure to plan ahead as the chorizo needs to sit in the fridge for a day. From Baja: Cooking on the Edge.

• Ready In: 35 mins
• Serves: 8
• Yields: 24 tacos

Ingredients

• Homemade chorizo

• 1  lb boneless pork shoulder, with plenty of fat or 1  lb  pork butt, with plenty fat
• 4  garlic cloves
• 3  tablespoons  chopped  white onions
• 2  teaspoons kosher salt
• 1  teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 2  tablespoons  ground  guajillo chilies or 2  tablespoons  new mexico chilies
• 1  tablespoon ground cumin
• 1  teaspoon  dried whole Mexican oregano, rubbed to a powder
• 1  teaspoon  crushed hot chili pepper
• 3  tablespoons white vinegar

• To serve

• 2  tablespoons canola oil
•  fresh corn tortilla, warmed
•  Mexican crema, creame fraiche or  sour cream
•  diced  white onion
•  chopped cilantro
•  shredded iceberg lettuce or  green cabbage

Directions

1. Make the chorizo: Set up a meat grinder with the finest disk. Cut the meat into cubes and grind once; then pass through again. For a ver fine, almost pasty texture, grind the meat a third time. (If you don't have a grinder, ask your butcher to do this for you.).
2. In a mini food chopper or food processor, pulse together the garlic, onion, and salt to a paste. Blend in the pepper, ground chile, cumin, oregano, and crushed chile. Blend in the vinegar. Scrape into a bowl. Add the pork and mix well. Knead until the meat and seasonings are well mixed. The sausage may be used right away, but it tastes better after a night in the refrigerator.
3. To serve, heat the oil in a medium frying pan and fry the chorizo until browned and crumbled into small pieces. Top each tortilla with a large dollop of crema and sprinkle with the chorizo, onion, cilantro, and lettuce.